


Absolute Apprentice

by allmagiccomeswithrice (bisaleth)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Zettai Kareshi | Absolute Boyfriend
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Pain probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 01:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6066267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisaleth/pseuds/allmagiccomeswithrice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Qui-Gon has never been able to keep an apprentice.  Maybe this one would be different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not What I Ordered At All

**Author's Note:**

> You don't need to have any prior knowledge regarding Absolute Boyfriend in order to understand this fic, in fact, you may enjoy it more if you haven't seen/read Absolute Boyfriend. Enjoy the crossover that literally no one asked for! :D

"I didn't order this." Qui-Gon marveled in confusion at the gigantic metal cylinder that had been delivered to his quarters.

"Sir, please sign here." The delivery woman smiled and ignored his comment, awaiting his signature, which, after a moment of consideration, he gave. With that, the cylinder was moved inside and the woman left him to stare at his strange package.

It was true that he'd gone out drinking the previous night, but he had never been one to make any sort of decision while in such a state, much less make such a strange purchase. What even was this thing?

Sighing, resigned, he began startup on the small information panel located on the side of the metal tube and read what it had to say about the product. He should at least figure out what exactly it was he bought.  Almost as soon as it activated, he went to the help section and called the number given, sure that he would want to return it. "This is Namikiri with Kronos Heaven. Did your package arrive safely?"

Qui-Gon paused a moment. He'd only just woken up, he wasn't ready for this. "I'm terribly sorry sir, but I didn't order this."

 

"You don't remember? I'm the man who changed your life." Namikiri replied, obviously taking Qui-Gon's lack of memory personally.

 

"Uhh..." Trying to figure out what to say to someone who you may or may not have met and done something with was hard. Qui-Gon then, not for the first time, wished that he could use the force to find this person and know exactly what transpired, instead of having to try his hand at guesswork. "You must have me confused for someone else, I didn't order this.  What even is it?" He spoke as he circled the cylinder, trying to figure out if there was a hint somewhere. The information panel had been quite vague from what he'd seen of it.

 

"Well, open it and look. Inside you will find eternal devotion." With that, the call ended. What a rude person, to leave before he'd finished with the conversation. Regardless, Qui-Gon did as instructed and pressed the button to open it.

 

The doors of the metal cylinder slid open instantly, and without any warning at all, a body fell directly on top of him, knocking them both to the ground. His immediate reaction was to reach for his lightsaber, as something surely must be wrong if he didn't previously sense any life forms coming from the delivery. His alarm quickly changed entirely, however, once he realized that the entirely naked boy on top of him was still not giving off any sign of life whatsoever and was as cold as stone.

Was the boy dead? Surely no one would have the guts to send a Jedi a dead body in the mail, but even at his age, he's never ceased to be surprised by what people do.

That'd been what caused this fiasco in the first place, he'd suppose. For years now, he's been longing to take an apprentice or even just get an assistant of some sort to travel with him on missions, but when he finally thought he'd gotten one, a boy of the name of Xanatos, he was betrayed.

Beginning to resign himself to never being able to train an apprentice or travel with anyone special during missions, he'd taken to occasionally going out to bars and having a few drinks to avoid pining alone in his quarters while pretending to meditate.

How he got into this situation wasn't entirely relevant at the moment however, as there was a lifeless body on top of him, and it was certainly not comfortable.

Still alarmed, he pushed the boy off himself and called the number again. As soon as it connected, Qui-Gon spoke, not waiting for Mr. Namikiri's greeting. "What is this, a mannequin? A corpse?" He somewhat accused the man on the other end.

 

"This is your ideal apprentice." Namikiri replied, sounding cheerful, despite Qui-Gon's accusations.

 

"My-...what?"

 

"Our company's newest product currently under development, Beloved series model 01. To put it bluntly, he is a robot."

 

Qui-Gon looked down at the blond young boy on his floor. "A robot?" He spoke in disbelief- no robot, no matter how high-grade they were, has ever been able to appear so entirely human, not to his knowledge anyway.

Namikiri continued, sounding quite pleased with himself. "Last night, you entered into a contract."

Qui-Gon sighed in frustration. He really disliked phone calls, it took away his ability to just know what was going on and made it more difficult to keep his cool. Still, he pressed on. "Why in the world would I buy a robot. I have no reason to-"

"You were moping about a bar telling anyone who would listen that all you wanted in life at this point was to have a companion. You seemed very interested in our product when we explained to you how it worked, you even put in your specifications and requests, they weren't easy to accomplish, you know! Building a high-quality robot such as this one purely out of Force-sensitive material was near impossible, this is going to cost you a fortune! Haha, but I'm sure you can afford it, you wouldn't have ordered it otherwise."

Before Qui-Gon could even begin to respond, Namikiri spoke again. "I hope you enjoy our product and leave good reviews! Have a good day sir!"

He hung up. That was it. That was it?

Now, Qui-Gon had met a large number of droids in his time, but never had he been required to learn how to activate one.

As the situation stood, it appeared that it would be best just to look through the info panel and figure out how to start the bootup of the boy, which sounded strange, even in his mind.

It didn't take long to find the instructions, but they were odd, to say the least, although he couldn't bring himself to be entirely surprised at this point. Activation required a kiss on the lips. He avoided rolling his eyes at the creators of the robot and simply pressed his hand to the boy's mouth, figuring it would work.

He waited.

Nothing. Damn it, the lips had a sensor installed to read lip prints, how troublesome. He leaned down, only hesitating for a moment before he kissed him.

 

The blond boy opened his eyes and smiled, excited. The attention to detail must have been intense, even from close up, now that he'd been activated, nothing seemed to give away the fact that he was a robot. It was extraordinary. The uniqueness alone almost made Qui-Gon want to keep him.  "Master Qui-Gon, I have been looking forward to meeting you." The boy was just so...earnest.

Which, as Qui-Gon assumed the people at Kronos Heaven knew from whatever discussions they must have had, was a particular weakness of his. He mustn't fall for whatever nonsense that sketchy guy and his company were likely attempting to con him into.

The boy looked apologetic as he curled in on himself a bit. "Sorry to bother you while I'm sure you're having quite the inner monologue, Master, but I'm a bit exposed here and it's making me uncomfortable." He gestured down at his entirely naked body, to get the message across.

"Of course." Qui-Gon quickly replied and went to grab some robes from the dresser and handing them to the boy, turning away and allowing him to put them on without an audience. "Do you have a name? A designation, perhaps?"

 

"I am 'Beloved' series 01. I'd appreciate a real name when you have the time for it, but I suppose you could refer to me as '01' if you're unsure what to call me..." He smirked as he finished putting on the robes and Qui-Gon turned around to see the mischievous look on his face as he finished what he was saying. "...although, 'Beloved' would work just as well if you'd prefer it."

 

"Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon's mind had never searched and found so quickly as it always seemed to when he was flustered. He was quite lucky that he was well trained in seeming unaffected by such things, as he rather disliked people seeing him flustered or embarrassed. "Your name is Obi-Wan. Is that suitable?"  As odd as it was that he came up with this in such a short moment, the reasoning for the name was as follows; '01' became 'o-one', 'Beloved' became 'bi' and the resulting name was Obi-Wan. 0-b-1.

 

"I like it." Obi-Wan smiled more genuinely this time.  Maybe Qui-Gon could get used to him.

 

Maybe he already has.


	2. 0-b-1 [MALFUNCTIONING]

Over the next month, Obi-Wan had proven himself to be quite useful, and as strange as it felt to Qui-Gon to be thinking that he wanted to seriously take Obi-Wan as an apprentice of a sort, he'd simply gotten far too attached.

Obi-Wan, while still a bit robotic at times in small ways like his perfectly simulated breathing patterns that gave off an unrealistic calm, had most things a human might. His A.I. was incredibly realistic, and it hadn't taken long for Qui-Gon to discover that due to the boy being made entirely out of Force-sensitive materials, Obi-Wan actually had a midi chlorian count high enough to use the Force. He was weak and untrained, sure, but that could be dealt with.

Qui-Gon, in his excitement about Obi-Wan being an entirely new type of life form entirely, had begun training him in secret, and Obi-Wan was proving to be a very fast learner.

It was troubling, then, to he seeing Obi-Wan sparring with a padawan and using a bit more of his strength than necessary. Obi-Wan was not the type to go overboard, usually.

The padawan he was sparring with was someone Qui-Gon had seen around, unfortunately. The boy had taken to degrading Obi-Wan on a number of occasions for being a robot, saying that he had no 'real' feelings to be searching through, only simulated ones.

Obi-Wan hit the boy to the ground then, and Qui-Gon was about to step in to stop the fight when he realized it had already been stopped. Obi-Wan was motionless.

Qui-Gon rushed over to him, grabbing his shoulders. "Obi-Wan, what's wrong?"

 

The boy crawled out from underneath Obi-Wan, and shrugged at Qui-Gon. "He's probably broken. I'm done. See you tomorrow." He left as Qui-Gon searched Obi-Wan's face for any sign of life.

 

"Obi-Wan, can you hear me?"

 

Qui-Gon reached out to touch his face, but pulled away when his hand was burned. Obi-Wan's skin was hot, this was bad, who knows what sort of inner chip could be fried at this point? Without another moment's notice, Qui-Gon lifted his heavy apprentice, carrying him out of there and outside into the cold night air, pulling out his communicator and calling Namikiri.

 

Namikiri was a tad more helpful this time around, he even came to do a full maintenance check in person, but in the end he'd only said "01 must have overheated and automatically shut down to prevent data loss. He's fine. The real question is, why was he using up so much of his CPU for this? You said it was simply sparring, but something as simple as physical effort shouldn't have overheated him..."

 

"I'm afraid I can't answer that, as I don't understand much of it myself." Qui-Gon replied as he watched Namikiri close a small panel on Obi-Wan's shoulder. It was strange to see Obi-Wan's actual computer parts exposed. He'd nearly forgotten what it really meant that he was a robot.

 

Of course he was made up of wires, chips, and metal bones. He's not human, he just looks like it from the outside.

 

Namikiri slapped a small metal bracelet on to Obi-Wan's wrist and a blue light began to glow from it. "This will help us monitor him from a distance. 01 is still in the testing stages and we have other robots in development whose progress will depend on 01's error feedback."

 

Qui-Gon accepted this, and decided he'd be more careful with Obi-Wan. He didn't like the empty look Obi-Wan's eyes had when he was deactivated.

 

As time went on, however, the feedback showed a steadily increasing amount of minor errors in Obi-Wan. His breathing patterns would change themselves up when he saw his Master interacting with a woman they met on a mission, a woman named Tahl. His heating system would occasionally spike and start producing just a bit more heat than absolutely necessary(though not enough to overheat him, luckily) but only during moments when he was alone with Qui-Gon. His emotion simulator started taking up twice the amount of CPU than it took when he was first activated.

 

These errors were worrying to Namikiri, but he refrained from telling Qui-Gon that the product they'd given him was malfunctioning.

 

After a particularly stressful mission, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were watching the sunset together, as it had become a sort of tradition after the first time, when Obi-Wan had exclaimed at the sight of the beautiful, bright colors produced naturally. Qui-Gon had enjoyed Obi-Wan's enjoyment more than the actual sunset.  The mission they'd been on wasn't entirely unusual aside from the fact that they'd fought Qui-Gon's previous apprentice, who took out his chaotic anger for various things on Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon quite nearly hadn't been able to get them both out of there alive, and it was all because they had no bond to communicate through.

 

In this moment, Qui-Gon wished he *could* bond with Obi-Wan, if only it were possible.

 

"How do you know that, if you've never tried?" Obi-Wan responded to Qui-Gon's thoughts, obviously proud of himself for having been able to do so.

 

Qui-Gon looked over at his apprentice, a happy sort of surprise on his face. "Have you been able to read my mind all this time?"

 

Obi-Wan shrugged, looking out at the beautiful city. "Only when you're thinking very loudly. I may not be able to be your official padawan, but if I can do this, we could give bonding a shot. Though.." Obi-Wan looked down, unsure. "...there may not be a mind here for you to read."

 

This was not the first time Obi-Wan had said something of this sort to Qui-Gon. Every time he did, Namikiri got a little error message saying that the confidence simulator had been deactivated, seemingly out of random.

 

"I'm not concerned about that, and neither should you be.  If it doesn't work, we'll try something else.  Stay in the moment, Obi-Wan.  Do not cloud your mind with what may or may not happen." Qui-Gon smiled encouragingly at his apprentice, patting him on the shoulder.

 

"Yes, Master." Obi-Wan nodded.  They stayed there, attempting and sometimes succeeding to communicate without vocal words for hours, not minding the night.


	3. 0-b-1 [ERROR, SIMULATOR MISSING]

Nearly a year passed like this, their bond grew and while it had been true that Qui-Gon couldn't exactly read Obi-Wan's thoughts, eventually he found that he could, in a way. It was just...different.

Obi-Wan's thoughts flew by almost as fast as a normal human's would, but ordinarily, humans can slow down and focus on certain thoughts in order to better remember them and keep a better sense of coherency. Obi-Wan, however, had no ability to change the speed of his processors, so if Qui-Gon read his thoughts at any given moment, it would be a quick stream of thoughts that Qui-Gon would have to take a small moment to understand the meaning of.

It was...nice. He actually was able to understand and bond with Obi-Wan faster than he would any ordinary human because he received streams of thought that contained many aspects of himself, rather than singular sentences that had been chosen by the thinker to be viewed.

 In the past month or so, in fact, he had begun to gain the ability to experience more than just thoughts through the bond, which surprised the both of them. Every now and again, subtly, Qui-Gon could feel an emotion. A real, tangible emotion coming from Obi-Wan.

 

The fact that this was being communicated through their bond was further proof that Obi-Wan had truly grown far beyond his programming.

 

This day had been a good day. Qui-Gon had agreed to go on a sort of vacation with Tahl, he'd always wanted to see and hear the Singing Towers of Darillium.  Tahl was a very good friend of his that he and Obi-Wan had met on a mission a few months back.  She was a wonderful woman that Qui-Gon cared a lot about, so he was looking forward to hearing the towers with her.

 

Unknown to him, though not entirely surprisingly, Obi-Wan knew about this trip and he didn't understand why it was putting him on edge.  he was beginning to think something was wrong with his emotion simulator.

 

Regardless, he continued on to his usual training with Qui-Gon that evening when he unexpectedly heard his master say something he'd never heard said by him before.  It was a confession that seemed to slip out of the man unbidden.

 

_"I love you."_

 

The resulting crash of intense conflicting feelings rushing through their bond to get to Qui-Gon was beautiful, welcome. Obi-Wan reached up to his master's collar, pulling the man toward him for a kiss that Qui-Gon would be happy to give, but it never happened.

 

They didn't make it.

 

Obi-Wan's body and entire system stuttered and his hand immediately went up to grip- to grip nothing as it stopped before it could reach anything but air. He was frozen in place except for his face. His face was pleading, terrified, he'd be crying if he had tears.

 

Hardly any time had passed between then and when his body stuttered again as if his mechanical clock was trying too hard to tick.

 

Another tiny moment and another stutter where Obi-Wan's breath simulator tried to reactivate, but froze once again as he spoke without the use of his mouth, revealing that it had always been an internal speaker doing the talking. "Qui-Qui-Qui- Master Qui-Gon, I-I have been looking forward to meeting you." His face is still stuck, pleading, as his voice repeats his first words.

 

He was broken.


	4. We Will Not Surrender

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the messyness of this chapter, but this entire story was just something I messaged my friend about, a story *idea* rather than a full-fledged story, and I'm lazy af so I'm copy/pasting for the most part.

Namikiri rushes in for the broken robot, finding Qui-Gon gently holding 01, pressing his face close, as though he'd be able to hear a quiet electronic whir instead of an occasional stutter. Namikiri and Qui-Gon rush Obi-Wan to Kronos Heaven, laying him on the table and plugging him into the system using the tiny port behind his ear and a visor over his eyes. "What happened to him? Can you fix him? What's wrong?"

Namikiri just gives Obi-Wan a look of pity as he continues running tests and doing whatever the heck he was doing.

"You _will_ answer me. What happened to Obi-Wan?"

"His emotion simulator has had it's power supply cut for months, he shouldn't have been- He's beyond what I made now. I'm not sure I can fix it, his system has changed so much to adapt to the use of the Force that it stopped using the emotion and personality simulator I gave him and instead built himself from scratch in the space left. We never should have made him Force-sensitive, I have no Idea it would override his programmi-"

Qui-Gon's eyes were beginning to shed tears by now, despite how hard he always tried to hold them back. "Find a way. There _must_ be a way."

Another Kronos Heaven member stomps in, furious. "01 cannot be permitted to shut down! Namikiri, this has gone far enough, wipe the data and reboot his system, now!"

Namikiri stands up, facing the person. "But this data is highly valuable for our construction on Beloved 02, we need to fix the problem in the emotion chip so that this won't happen in another robot!" He shouts, desperately, as though he was defending his own son. Come to think of it, he  _did_ think of 01 as his son. "He's only just starting to show signs of true life! We can't reset him _now_!"

The man sneers. "He's just an electrical appliance, in the end. Reformat him immediately and we can be done with this awful business."

The man approaches the screen, but Qui-Gon immediately steps between him and the computer. "Reformat him?! You are **not** to reformat him, is that understood!?" He speaks in the most commanding voice he has, using every bit of his Force strength he has against this man, but it's not quite enough.

The fight the man is putting up against a Jedi's mind control is so intense that it's visible, the pain of battling him off causing his's face to go red. He speaks between clenched teeth. "01 is in an extremely dangerous condition and he have to scrap him, NOW." With that, a few more employees entered the room, one of them managing to activate the reformatting sequence before Qui-Gon could get himself out of the man's mind.

Without any hesitation, Qui-Gon activates his lightsaber, destroying the computer with more blows than needed. " _No_. _**Give**_ him back!" His rage consumes him, his eyes are circled by the red stain of grief. "Give him back right now, he's- you don't understand, he's-!"

Namikiri falls to his knees, shocked. "That's not going to help. The command has already been received by his visor."

Qui-Gon couldn't watch this. He turned his face away from Obi-Wan, no, 01. He didn't want to see his beloved slowly losing himself.  One of the employees that had previously entered the room suddenly spoke up, breaking the pained silence. "Sir, the signal from the visor is giving us an error message."

Qui-Gon turns to look at Obi-Wan, who is slowly lifting the visor away and sitting up.

The room is silent until...  
  
"Qui-Gon." Obi-Wan smiles genuinely at his master, as affectionate as he had been before this mess.

The man, who has by now been identified as being the boss, barked at his employees. "Call security!"  

One of the employees grabbed the other trying to call security, shouting back at Namikiri and Qui-Gon. "Get 0-b-1 and get out of here!"

They did. Namakiri and Qui-Gon rushed out of there. On their way, Qui-Gon asked Namakiri why that employee had helped them and the only response he received was that he'd been the one monitoring feedback, seeing how happy Obi-Wan was. He was the only one in the company who referred to 01 as 0-b-1.

They're soon chased by security, and Namakiri runs at them to try and hold them off, bu he didn't stand a chance. He falls to the ground, injured and unconscious. Obi-Wan can't just leave him there. He runs, using the Force to speed his steps, directly through the lines of security and to Namakiri's side. "Are you alright? Namakiri!"

The man from before, the boss, arrives at the scene. "Capture 01!"

Qui-Gon rushes in, lightsaber ablaze but using it only to destroy the weapons that security had been pointing at Obi-Wan. "Stop this!"

The boss isn't scared of Qui-Gon, even now. "This robot is a defective product. If there is an abnormality in a product, a business has a responsibility to dispose of it."

Namakiri coughs and sits up, looking up at his boss. "We made a mistake." He's helped to his feet by Obi-Wan. "It's true, he's a robot, but he has developed a will of his own, a uniqueness that's so entirely sentient that it can not be ignored. He has a heart that feels love. 01 can no longer be disposed of at our convenience."

"I cannot allow a dangerous robot to roam free!"

Qui-Gon interjects the conversation. "Obi-Wan is not dangerous! Not any more than anyone else in this room. When times have gotten tough, when he's been at his limit, he's still doing everything he possibly can to help me, to help the universe! He think about us more than anyone, his heart is pure." Some of the time as he's speaking, Qui-Gon looks over to Obi-Wan, making sure he's okay, making sure he knows how important he is to him, to the universe- but on this final line, he speaks directly to the boss. "So we will not surrender. You are not taking Obi-Wan. You are _never_ taking Obi-Wan. No matter what happens, I will take care of him from now on, we will not be needing your assistance."

"...Qui-Gon..." Obi-Wan whispers so quietly that no one can hear it, no one but Qui-Gon who heard it (and a number of other things, like 'I love you' and 'thank you') through their bond.

After a long silence and a frustrated sigh, the boss turned to Namikiri. "I leave 01 in your hands. You will decide his fate."

 

Namikiri approached Obi-Wan, removing the feedback bracelet. "You won't be needing this anymore,...Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan turns away from Namikiri, his eyes locking with Qui-Gon's. "You didn't go."

Obi-Wan is blaming himself for Qui-Gon not having gone to the Singing Towers, so Qui-Gon stops that train of thought before it can even fully get itself started, or at least tries to. "It's fine," He smiles, putting his hand on his padawan's shoulder. "...If I can be with you, I don't need to go anywhere."

 


	5. [FUNCTIONING 100%] Until the Sun Rises

The three returned to Qui-Gon's living quarters after that, Namikiri doing a few things to Obi-Wan, like upgrading his cooling system, but somehow there's still no change in the frequent overheating.

When Qui-Gon asks what the cause is, Namikiri responds with a legitimate answer for what seems like the first time without the use of the Force. "The awakening of his ego has placed a great burden on the main system. I'll figure out a way to fix him, I definitely will." Unsaid, but not unheard; 'if he survives long enough for me to figure out how.'

 "Thank you for all your help." Qui-Gon nods his head at the man as Namikiri begins to exit, but he stops midway in the door to say one last thing. "Master Qui-Gon, do you know why 01 couldn't be reformatted?"

"I had assumed it was because I destroyed the computer."

"No. That would not have changed anything. It was because the love he feels for you overcame his program." Namikiri turned around, leaving. "See you."

* * *

Once Obi-Wan had been settled, Qui-Gon went to apologize to Tahl, he had to tell her why he didn't show up, and why even though she could reschedule, he still going.

"Have you given up on your dream of seeing and hearing the beautiful Singing Towers of Darillium?" Tahl asks him, confused and hurt.

"Always, Obi-Wan is there for me. Now I must be here for him in return. That is why I can't go to the Singing Towers. I'm truly sorry. Excuse me." Qui-Gon turns to leave, not wanting to hurt her further by sticking around, but she stops him. "He-! He's a robot, you know? I'm-I can pass through life together with you. We can _live_ life together. He can't."

Qui-Gon nods, having had this thought occur to him once before. "Even so, I'm afraid I must. I want to be with Obi-Wan.  He's simply too important.  I would say the situation has become dangerous, but to be honest, it has been that way for a long time now."

* * *

Later that night, Obi-Wan is laying in Qui-Gon's bed. He's not feeling well, overheating still. "I'm sorry, Qui-Gon. Because of me, you weren't able to go to the Singing Towers of Darillium. You were looking forward to it so much..."

"It's not your fault."

"Thank you." Obi-Wan reaches out, and Qui-Gon holds his hand.  "Thank you for getting me out of trouble again.  I..." Obi-Wan holds a bit tighter, keeping his gaze locked with Qui-Gon's. "I absolutely don't want to forget about you, ever."

Qui-Gon leans in and kisses Obi-Wan very lightly on the lips, but Obi-Wan leans into it, not wanting it to end as quickly as it does. "Master..."

Qui-Gon smiles gently, his affection so tentative. "Good night, Obi-Wan. I will be in the next room, should you need me." He leaves, Obi-Wan smiling a big, goofy grin behind him.

* * *

The next day, Qui-Gon can Hear Obi-Wan's thoughts loud, clear, and slow. He may as well be human.  It would have been an achievement, but every step he takes towards humanity brings him closer to shutting down.  His chips are slowly melting inside of him and they both know, but neither of them want to accept it or acknowledge it.

They spend the day together. Their first date, in a way.

Mostly just walks, they both love scenery, but neither of them are actually bothering to look at it, not today.  Today it was just the two of them.

 

 

When it gets dark, they go to the roof of their building to watch the stars.

 

"Close your eyes." Qui-Gon says as he stands, moving in front of Obi-Wan, who closes his eyes immediately.

Reaching into his robe pocket, Qui-Gon places a blue ring on Obi-Wan's hand. "You may open them now." He does. "The stone is Force-sensitive, like you. I had this made a month ago in anticipation for your birthday. This is a few days early, but I wanted you to have it. Next year I'll make a tie for your braid with the same kind of stone as decoration, after that, a crest for your belt, the year after that, I'll find something else."

Obi-Wan's breathing simulator glitched again, but it quickly returned to normal. "Thank you." At first it would seem he was thanking him for the gift, but that wasn't truly it. He was thanking him for saying there will be another year, and another, perhaps endless years.

He just wanted to live a little longer, he felt like he'd only just begun to exist.

Qui-Gon sat back down next to Obi-Wan, allowing his lover to take comfort in physically holding on to him, and taking his own comfort in it as well.

 

[MAIN CPU OPERATION AT 2%] Obi-Wan read on the miniscreen in his head. Qui-Gon had fallen asleep.

 

"I love you." Obi-Wan spoke, softly as to not awaken him.

 

[1% CRITICAL]

 

"..Qui Gon..." Obi Wan tried so hard, just keeping his thoughts on Qui-Gon in his last moment. [BEGINNING SHUT DOWN SEQUENCE]

 

 

Obi Wan leaned up to kiss Qui-Gon for the last time, so lightly that it could hardly be felt.

 

"I'll always... love you.... always."

 

Obi Wan removed himself from Qui Gon, slowly and jerkingly walking away from him and toward Namikiri. He'd privately talked with Namikiri the day before about what to do when he's shutting down.

As Obi-Wan continues to stutter toward Namikiri, he speaks. "Than-thank you for building me, N-N-N-N-Namikiri." Namikiri catches Obi-Wan in his arms, keeping him from falling. "01...Are you...crying?"

Obi-Wan yanks up to to look at Namikiri. He is crying. Somehow, he's crying. "I-I-I was happy to..to..-.t-to be able to love."

"Qui-Gon...." [0%]

Qui-Gon wakes just one moment too late.  He jolts out of his position and dashes to Obi-Wan grabbing him and sobbing as he listened for that mechanical tick tock.  He listened.

He listened.

He cried, he wailed, Namikiri had intended to leave with Obi-Wan before Qui-Gon awoke, but now that it had come to this, he had to allow Qui-Gon to grieve.

Qui-Gon still listened. He kept his head pressed to him, waiting through the tears for something, anything, he just wan't ready to accept it.  He see-sawed between listening silently and sobbing into his lover's neck, neither being enough to express his ripped apart insides.

He'd been there just a moment ago. They were cuddling, sleeping, recharging. They were watching the stars, watching each other. They *were*.

It tore at his mind, his soul, to have lost his bond and his love in the same moment, and yet, still, he would have done it all over again if it meant being with Obi-Wan one more time.

He stayed with him until the sun rose.


End file.
